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0 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW Elevated lead levels found in a few SOU fountains ... Fire-season regs ramped up Thursday ... Quills & Queues: Ashland's visual arts tradition in decline ... Elevated lead levels found in a few SOU fountains ... Fire-season regs ramped up Thursday ... Quills & Queues: Ashland's visual arts tradition in decline ... COUNCIL CORNER Council Corner: My ride-along with officer Caswell Comment By Stef Seffinger DailyTidings.com By Stef Seffinger Posted Jun. 14, 2016 at 12:01 AM By Stef Seffinger Posted Jun. 14, 2016 at 12:01 AM » RELATED CONTENT • Chamber hosts review of downtown intiatives » Social News The modern police car is not a luxury ride, I will say after my four hour ride-along. There is lots of technology, though. Not like the police cars of my youth. Video camera, audio recordings of all the happenings, body camera and audio on officer Caswell and lots of other computer features to make a computer geek happy. As well as this level of documentation, each event had a new incident number with notes made by the officer, so those of you who aspire to a career in law enforcement, take care to sharpen your writing skills. Before my ride-along I had heard and perhaps thought myself that we need our patrol officers on foot. Actually, officer Caswelll was often on foot during the course of his work. Because he was in a patrol car, he was able to get from point A to point B quickly. That's important when responding to calls in all neighborhoods, not just downtown. Another fact I learned: no more Dragnet or Cagney and Lacey (I know I am dating myself). There are no longer two officers in the patrol car. No other officer to quickly have your back. I am sure this makes it more important for one officer to quickly be able to get to another officer who needs help. We have 27 police officers — 13 are patrol officers — and two in training. In Oregon, newly hired recruits get four months of training. After this, they are paired with a number of different training officers to teach them the intricacies of policing in Ashland. Ashland's model is based on community policing, with preventative and innovative procedures including the You Have Options Program, the drug overdose intervention protocol and a program to allow drug users turn themselves in at police headquarters to get help rather than being arrested. The number of patrol officers varies, with fewer officers working during graveyard shifts. At times, Talent police or the Sheriff's Department help to handle situations when one or more Ashland officers must transport someone who needs to be taken to jail, to detox or to Rogue Valley Medical Center because they pose a danger to themselve or others. All these facilities are in Medford. This can reduce the number of officers on patrol. Officer Caswell and other officers I have talked with say there has been an increase in drug-related problems in the past several years, more transients coming to town who engage in illegal behavior including breaking into hotels in the south side of town, committing assaults and more incidents at the Resource center that require police assistance. I also have witnessed the treatment our police are increasingly subjected to. In recent months, Ashland officers have been punched, spit on and had obscenities hurled at them. Sadly, many of the onlookers do nothing to help but instead snap pictures to put on YouTube, sometimes escalating the situation. While like most Ashlanders I believe restraint and preventative actions are definitely preferable to physical intervention, there are times when public safety requires these actions. I also learned that there is a written protocol for how our police are to intervene in situations that require police action. Applying these interventions fairly and without bias has been a major accomplishment of our police force, something I witnessed in my ride-along. For example, I noted in citing speeders, there was no particular pattern to who was cited, old car or new car. I noted preventative policing and positive interaction and no negative comments made toward any person. I also learned from officer Caswell his genuine compassion for those facing tough times and was reminded that many who enter law enforcement do so out of desire to serve and protect. I came away as a city councilor with a better understanding of what our police face and with the concern that our police department is understaffed. I think this poses a danger to public safety as well as to our police. I believe this is a priority goal to address in looking at our city budget. Stef Seffinger is a member of the Ashland City Council. By Stef Seffinger DailyTidings.com By Stef Seffinger Posted Jun. 14, 2016 at 12:01 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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